Headspin
It’s funny what your mind gets to thinking and turning over as you drive. Mine was ripping through the gears, packed to the gunnels with unfamiliar names to put together with two or even three times met faces in places best described as the ‘back of beyond’ in that shy way that being new to each other makes us hang back in a conversation. I was in a headspin!
The roads seemed unnaturally empty to me one day out from the end of a long public day weekend, don’t forget I’d been used to long traffic snarls out along the Pacific Highway from Sydney up to the Central Coast and those when you got stuck in them were hell! The drive out of Auckland had a distinctly no mess feel about it, no traffic snarls, no tail-gaters, no irritatingly slow drivers in the outside lane, nothing. Just open road and horses under the bonnet wanting a free run home.
The Waikato Expressway
“The Waikato Expressway is a dual carriageway section of State Highway 1 in the Waikato region and forms part of the link between Auckland and Hamilton. Currently, the expressway is made up of two sections: the first beginning at the end of the Auckland Southern Motorway at the Bombay Hills and ending at Longswamp, and the second beginning at Rangiriri and ending at Ohinewai.
These two sections are linked by a three lane section of State Highway 1 that will eventually be upgraded to four lanes and thus become a part of the expressway. Further extensions to the expressway are planned and when completed, the expressway will form a 94.5 km long continuous four lane dual carriageway from the Bombay Hills to the town of Cambridge, 24 kilometres south-east of Hamilton. When completed, Hamilton, as well as several other towns along the current route of State Highway 1 (such as Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Cambridge) will be completely bypassed allowing through traffic to move much more efficiently.”
Poet and Critic, Kendrick Smithyman
As we followed the Expressway down passed the turn off to Te Kauwhata I was reminded that the New Zealand poet and critic Kendrick Smithyman was stationed there for part of his time at the Cambridge Military Camp (as part of the Survey Troop NZA). It took me years (no, decades when I think about it) to get a handle on Smithyman’s writing so you can imagine my great relief recently when I read that his poems were described as “often highly allusive, intellectually demanding and syntactically complex.” I was immediately off the hook! I was seventeen years old and syntactically incompetent by about thirty-odd years!
You get a great insight to the area and times in his letters to his friend Graham Perkins in “Yours, my old and rare”: Kendrick Smithyman’s Letters to Graham Perkins, 1942-45, edited with notes by Peter Simpson. I found that reading him in this way (through his letters) proved extremely helpful to the way I am able to read his poetry now. Not before time I thought to myself!
“Kendrick Smithyman (1922–95), poet and critic, was born in Te Kopuru, near Dargaville, where his parents ran a boarding house. He defended his work against criticisms of obscurity on the grounds that complexity was unavoidable in the modern world.” It never ceases to amaze me that so small a country as ours could birth so many literary luminaries for so long. We are rich, so incredibly rich that way.
Atua Wera
Of particular interest to me is the fact that “shortly before his death at age 73, Smithyman completed ‘Atua Wera’ a lengthy, idiosyncratic poem-book about Papahurihia, the remarkable nineteenth-century Nga Puhi religious leader who had been Hone Heke’s personal tohunga. The product of some fifteen years’ research and writing, Atua Wera is Smithyman’s magnum opus.” It’s in my Christmas reading.
Moving quickly now down into the Waikato region it seems easier to get my bearings going home earlier than it did when we came up. “In the west, the region is bounded by the Tasman Sea. The coastal region is largely rough hill country known locally as the Hakarimata Range, though it is more gently undulating in the north, closer to the mouth of the Waikato River. The coast is punctured by three large natural harbours: Raglan Harbour, Aotea Harbour, and Kawhia Harbour.
The area around Raglan is noted for its volcanic black sand beaches, and also for its fine surfing conditions at Manu Bay (home of a world-renowned left-hand break. The word on the street is that Manu Bay has the longest, most accessible and consistent left-hand break in the world). 2 kms further west is Whale Bay. This bay has a Maori tradition of being a healing place where fatigued warriors came to heal the body and soul.
Sanctuary
Today Whale Bay is a sanctuary for surfers seeking both relaxation and excitement and is a special haven for lovers of the hollow wave. It is distinguished by an excellent left point break, which performs well on all tides. Entry can be off an exposed rock shelf or out The Valley further west. Either way it involves some serious paddling over to the line up.
Just 1 km off Whale Bay is a superlative razor-edged left-hand point break called Indicators, which includes The Valley as its inside section. This area is very exposed and produces the largest waves, which barrel down the long boulder point for some 300 metres before entering The Valley, providing dream-length rides.They say too that Ruapuke Beach (60 kms from Hamilton) can also be surfed on any tide off the north headland.
To the east of the coastal hills lies the broad floodplain of the Waikato River. The region has a wet temperate climate, and the land is largely rich farmland, although it also contains undrained peat swamp. It is in the broad Waikato Plains that most of the region’s population resides, and the land is intensively farmed with both livestock (mainly dairy cattle) and crops (such as maize).
Cambridge we covered in an earlier blog. Around it however, the land rises towards the forested slopes of the Kaimai and Mamaku Ranges. The upper reaches of the Waikato River are used for hydro-electricity, and several large artificial lakes are found in the region’s southeast.
Dramatic Huka Falls
To the north of the region (around Te Kauwhata) several shallow lakes lie, the largest of which is Lake Waikare. However, the Huka Falls are the most dramatic natural feature on the Waikato River north of Taupō. About 5 km from the lake outlet, the river plunges over an 11-metre ledge after passing through a 230-metre chasm.
The relentless, turbulent water can be watched from a swing bridge or lookouts, close enough for visitors to be drenched in spray. The falls also attract adventurous kayakers. The falls appear white and intense ice-blue, as suggested by their name (huka means froth or sugar). The luxury Huka Lodge is upstream.” It’s been a good road trip so far, next stop Taupo and lunch.
